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Page 417
groundless, he had found two frantic, terrified children who clung to him, begging assurance that their mother was safe. He had assured them, but he had passed two days of purgatory until a messenger had struggled through with the news that Alinor was indeed safe with Lady Ela at Salisbury.
It was just like Alinor, Ian thought, to have chosen that particular week to go to Salisbury to meet the woman Lady Ela suggested as a companion for Joanna. But that is not fair, he told himself. Alinor could not have known that God would send such a storm. She did not do it to spite him. There was little conviction in Ian's reproving thought. It seemed to him that anything Alinor did since that tourney was done to spite him. With an effort, Ian thought about the woman she had brought back to Roselynde with her and, after a moment, he smiled. Lady Margaret was a pleasant thought, one to induce smiles. Plump and cheerful, practical and placid, she was the ideal person to have charge of the children.
There was no tragedy about her story, although she was a widow with grown children. Her son had not cast her out, as sometimes happened. Her daughter-in-law adored her. Both had pleaded with her to stay, but Lady Margaret was no fool. As long as she remained, she managed the keep, and her daughter-in-law remained a child and a toy. Besides, Lady Margaret craved young ones to teach and to guide. When her grandchildren were of an age to need her and her daughter-in-law had more confidence, she would return. At present, she was happy to come to Roselynde.
Her coming had left Alinor free to go on progress. Ian was annoyed with himself for allowing Alinor's name to come back into his mind. That woman was like a sore, sharp-edged tooth. You could no more keep from cutting your mind on thoughts of her than you could keep from cutting your tongue on the bad tooth. Again he wrenched his mind away from his wife, con-

 
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